Penn State women’s lacrosse will face Stanford in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the selection committee announced on Sunday. The Nittany Lions did not get an automatic bid to the 29-team tournament, but since the team had a high RPI, they were selected to play in the first round.

Penn State will return to the NCAA Tournament after missing its opportunity in the 2025 season. The Nittany Lions had a strong season, finishing the regular season 12-6 and 4-4 in conference play. The team struggled against top-ranked opponents, but stayed on par in many of those games, only losing by three or fewer goals.

Penn State started the season 9-0 before being handed its first loss against Princeton on March 15. The Nittany Lions scored 15+ goals in nine of their 12 wins, proving they can function as a high-scoring threat.

Penn State had six players earn Big Ten Honors. Delaney Radin and Maggie Driver were named to the First Team All-Big Ten, Anna Salerno was named to the Second Team All-Big Ten, Roquette Allen and Susannah O’Connell were named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team, and Lilly Spilker was named the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honoree.

Allen also earned a unanimous selection to the All-Freshman Team and was also named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Furthermore, she broke the Penn State record of being named Big Ten Freshman of the Week six times on the season.

Since the team did not win the Big Ten Championship, it will not receive home-field advantage. The Nittany Lions will also have to play in round one of the tournament.

Stanford finished 15-4 and 8-2 in ACC play on the year. The Cardinal made it all the way to the ACC title game, where they fell to North Carolina 12-8. Stanford is led by redshirt junor Aliya Polisky, who finished the season with 44 goals and 26 assists.

The matchup is set for 6 p.m. on Friday, May 8, on the campus of No. 7-seeded Michigan.